commandery

Han dynasty administration

...the single source from whom all powers of government were delegated. It was the Han emperors who appointed men to the senior offices of the central government and in whose name the governors of the commanderies (provinces) collected taxes, recruited men for the labour corps and army, and dispensed justice. And it was the Han emperors who invested some of their kinsmen with powers to rule as...

At the outset of the Han dynasty, vast areas were entrusted as kingdoms to the emperor’s kinsmen, while the central government administered the interior provinces as commanderies. But by about 100 bc the imperial government had deprived the kingdoms of their strength, and most of their lands had been incorporated as commanderies under the central government. Although the kingdoms survived in...